


Friendly Concern

by Nebulad



Series: Witch Doctor [6]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Community - Freeform, Fluff, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-17 09:40:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12362928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebulad/pseuds/Nebulad
Summary: “Your concern is touching and more than a little confusing, my friend, but I assure you—”“It’s about the witch.” The sentence fell like a stone in water, and Julian rippled for a moment. A nerve in his jaw jumped.“Their name is Jhend,” he corrected stiffly.





	Friendly Concern

Isaak sat down gruffy, and the wooden chair beneath him squealed in protest. Julian’s eye darted up from his letter— from Jhend, and about the seventy-fifth time he’d read the silly little keepsake that Malak had brought him— to the bartender, who sat in terse silence for about a minute straight. “Something wrong?” he ventured finally, slipping the paper back into a pocket on his coat.

“Might be that there is,” was the huffed reply.

“Something… medical in nature?”

“No, unless you’ve cracked your fucking skull open.” Well he hadn’t done that lately; unless of course he _had,_ only he’d done it so well that he couldn’t remember. Seeing as how there were no large blank spots in his memory, however, he’d put good money on the health of his skull.

“Your concern is touching and more than a little confusing, my friend, but I assure you—”

“It’s about the witch.” The sentence fell like a stone in water, and Julian rippled for a moment. A nerve in his jaw jumped.

“Their name is Jhend,” he corrected stiffly.

“I know what their damn name is. I only thought— you did my man and me a good turn a few years back, when the flu went through.” Julian remembered; Felix, Isaak’s husband, had fallen ill. It hadn’t been particularly difficult or messy, but the bar had fallen hard and Julian wasn’t about to accept payment from men with nothing to give. What was the harm in _pro bono_ work anyway? He wasn’t doing anything better with his time, or hadn’t been. “Thought it’d be remiss if I didn’t say something, in return.”

Julian spoke, though it felt like he had to drag the words from his gut. “And… what, pray tell, do you mean to say about them?”

“Not about them in particular, mind you, I’ve got no quarrel; only that…” The older man stiffened up, looking about as uncomfortable as one person could be. “What went on up at the palace, Ilya…”

“Is so much more well documented than I’d hoped.” He didn’t mean to be short, but this conversation reeked of Asra already. The downside of knowing everyone through somebody else, all down here in the charming slum of a home they were all forced to live in, was that no one fucking _forgot_ anything. _Where’s Mazelinka? Oh she’s tending to Ilya, he won’t get out of bed; heard his man left him cold._ Everyone knew somehow, even people who rightly hadn’t cared past the novelty of news— like Isaak.

“Felix said as much though, that he’d heard the new witch—”

“ _Jhend.”_

“All right, all right, _Jhend_ was the old one’s apprentice. _And_ that they’re living up in the palace, looking for _you.”_ The look Isaak was giving him was _unnecessarily_ firm, and Julian sank into his chair despite himself.

He wasn’t stupid; all of that was true, but that… didn’t mean anything. It didn’t _have_ to mean anything, but he couldn’t say _I don’t think of Asra for a second when Jhend’s with me,_ or _no, they really care about me— I’m not pretending this time._ “Seeing as they could find me nightly if they had the time, I’m not particularly concerned about their role at the palace,” he said, deciding to neatly ignore the mention of Asra altogether.

“You’ve met the Countess; could be one of her fancy traps.” Julian once again had to concede the point; Nadia could be _vicious_ when she wanted to be. Quite frankly there was no better way to get him to go quietly than by orchestrating… all of this. That problem solved itself though: either Jhend’s feelings were real, or it was a trap and Julian would turn himself in well and truly knowing that he’d been just gullible and needy enough to hurt and that was the only thing that would ever come of his vulnerability.

Absently, he ran his thumb along the crease of their letter. It was full of a myriad of little jokes and complaints about the palace, and the very serious assertion that something otherworldly was stalking them; and of course, an embarrassed little paragraph apologising for not seeing him, but one of the courtiers was suspicious and they wanted to be sure they could throw him off their scent before making their move. _I miss you, I miss you, I miss you,_ they’d written.

Julian was going to hang either way, but it’d only hurt if Jhend didn’t care.

“I can see what you’re thinking, Ilya. You’d break your grandmother’s heart, thinking like that,” he scolded. What an innocent assumption, that Grandma Devorak still had a heart to break.

“She wouldn’t know for months,” he said dismissively. “My ghost would have plenty of time to escape before she binds me to some doll for eternity.”

“Don’t _joke,”_ he snapped, and Julian put up his hands.

“What can I say, my friend? You’re right, but I’ve hardly ever let _facts_ stop me from doing as I liked.” He prayed that Isaak would miss the obvious joke about how it must’ve been why he kept throwing his hat in with magicians, and for once luck was on his side. Hopefully he hadn’t used up his allotted good fortune all in one go.

“So long as I said something,” the bartender said, heaving himself to his feet. Unfortunately Julian wasn’t ten anymore, and so he very well knew that _well I’ve said my piece_ was the baseline transition into _why are you still doing this after we had our talk?_ This wasn’t over quite yet but…

An arm wrapped around his shoulders and Isaak’s expression told him everything he needed to know. “I thought you said it was too dangerous?” he hummed, tilting his head back for the kiss he knew was coming. Jhend moved their hands from his shoulders to his cheeks, holding him there breathlessly.

“That was two days ago; old news. I can’t believe you thought it would take me longer than that to outsmart a nosy courtier,” Jhend teased, letting him right himself. Isaak retreated to the bar and certainly Felix would get all the gory details once the place was shut up for the night, but until then?

Jhend was there, and for the time being, that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing blog is here](http://nebulaad.tumblr.com), and I also do commissions. I've been sitting on this fic for a while just because I unlocked approximately zero bonus content for Julian and so my experience with the update was "the night becomes progressively more awkward as Julian gawks at Jhend for no reason because they have not spoken to one another all night." I thought Mazelinka was interesting, though, and liked the idea of the whole deep dark community being all up in each others business.
> 
> And okay my whole opinion on Asra and Julian being together is that Asra was probably in it for something casual and I don't doubt that he probably told Julian as much but you know I think Julian is a romantic type— I think, based on how fucking desperate for affection he is— so I think Julian thought that if he believed real hard and just _cared_ enough, then Asra would fall in love with him and it just didn't happen.
> 
> Also, if you like my writing [I'm making a game!](https://nebulous.itch.io/manor-hill). That link takes you to itch.io (the only site I could find that would host my Twine game but don't worry it's legit) and you can play the prologue right in the browser? It looks like shit atm but the version I'm working off of looks just fine because I've been working on it forever, so.


End file.
